Newspapers
by LoverlyLit
Summary: The four times Kai saw news of Master Tenzin and his family.


**I was supposed to upload this yesterday, but I didn't feel like it. I've been procrastinating so much on my other works I swear I'll catch up within the next week. I had this idea while I was taking my Saturday shower and Sunday I wrote it so ~**

I.

The first time, he was six, and the ladies who worked at the orphanage were fawning over a newspaper.

"Look at the picture," one of them cooed, holding out the black-and-white catalog. "Isn't he just darling?"

"Absolutely," a second said, taking a sip of steaming tea. Kai peeked his head out a little more from around the corner. "Do you think he'll be an airbender, too?"

"Not sure," the first one said again. Over by the stove, another worker was boiling water, despite the late hour. "The first two are. It'd be quite the blessing."

After a moment, he couldn't take it anymore. "Who are you talking about?" Kai asked, walking openly into the kitchen. The ladies jumped, a couple of them gasping, and he tightened his blanket around his shoulders.

"Oh, Kai, it's just you," one of them said. She was the one who fed all the younger kids breakfast, the one with cold blue eyes and deep wrinkles. Kai liked her the least. "You should be in bed."

"I couldn't sleep," he whined, adding a foot stomp just for good measure. "I wanna know who!"

The woman holding the newspaper smiled patiently and held it out for him to see. "Master Tenzin had a son this weekend," she told him, setting a long-nailed finger on a grayscale photograph. He squinted. It was just a normal picture, with a bearded man holding a bundle of white cloth. Next to him stood a lady, probably his wife or something, and two little girls. Another picture showed the bundle's face, though he kind of looked like a potato to Kai.

"What's his name?" he asked.

"Meelo," the lady told him. Peony, Kai remembered. She was called Peony.

Kai wrinkled his nose. _Meelo_. That was a weird name, alright. "What's an airbender?" he decided to ask instead.

"Well," Peony hesitated. The other women watched with sleepy interest. "You know how some of your friends can control rocks?" He nodded. "These people can do that with air."

"Well, how come I've never heard of it?"

"It's very rare," a different lady piped up. "It makes these people very special, and they have to have lots of babies so that there can be more airbenders."

Kai didn't really get that, but he nodded anyways. Curious, he pointed to the two girls in the photo. One of them looked real young, maybe a few years smaller than him, but the other one looked just about his age. "Are they airbenders, too?"

Peony nodded. "Yep."

"How many do there gotta be?"

The ladies laughed. "A lot," one of them said once their giggles had died down. "But that's going to take a _hundred years._"

II.

The second time, he was eight, and out on the streets.

He'd run away from the orphanage two weeks ago. Sure, he missed the scheduled - maybe very gruel-y - meals and the hard slat for a bed. But those bullies and the poor excuses for "loving" caretakers ... that was not something to be missed. Not at all.

So he sucked it up and walked through the worn-down streets. Alone. All day, all night. Though really, in some senses, it wasn't that bad. He thought that as he flipped a shiny silver coin through the air, grinning to himself.

"Could I get a few of those papers?" he asked the man at the counter of the store, and the old guy looked up.

With a sigh, he answered, "Which one?"

Kai pointed to one of the stacks. He couldn't read too well, and he didn't know the title, but he recognized the swirly font at the top. It was made of a fairly soft material, and was the comfiest pillow he could manage whenever he didn't nick enough money to nab a room somewhere. He'd thought about stealing bigger things than money, maybe a real pillow or a real blanket, and the idea was intriguing, but he wasn't feeling particularly up to it.

The vendor groaned lazily and took the coin, slapping a few of the papers on the counter. "Here, kid. Knock yourself out."

"What? No!" Kai exclaimed. "I should get four, not three."

"Economy gets worse, prices go up," he shrugged. "Deal with it."

He huffed, but grabbed the papers and left, flipping through the pages. And there they were again. The master with the beard, his wife, their kids. Kai stared enviously at the photograph. They were always so happy looking, so familial. It made his chest kind of hurt. His eyes grazed the characters, recognizing "Southern Water Tribe" and "Master Tenzin" among the article. The photo showcased the whole family dressed warmly in a snowy landscape, the two younger kids bounding along and the oldest daughter tucked under her father's arm.

Kai sighed, the sound awfully bittersweet, and kept walking.

III.

The third time, he was nine, and there was a booth on the streets selling magazines and news reports.

He had been taken in by another orphanage two months ago, and he was surprised to find how much he loathed being in one. The beds were hard, the boys were loud, the food was horrible, and nobody really cared about you. He'd never been to school, but he imagined this was what it must be like: stark, political, friends who weren't really your friends. At least, that was until he saw a group of uniformed girls giggling as they skipped down the street, and now he had second thoughts about what school was like.

"Hey, Kai," How, one of the other boys, called to him. "Do you want to play ball with us?"

Kai scowled as he surveyed the park. The caretakers were busy doting over the girls, and middle class couple shot skeptical glances at their dirt-stained clothes. "I'm not an earthbender, How," he told the boy. "You know that."

How, who was two years Kai's elder, just shrugged. "That's fine," he smiled. "You don't have to be a bender."

"Well, that just means you guys will beat me. I'll pass."

He stood and moved to walk away, but How grabbed his shoulder. "Do you wanna be ref, then?"

"Let go of me," Kai complained, shrugging him off. "I said I don't wanna play."

How looked a bit disappointed. "Okay," he nodded after a moment. "Have fun being alone and stuff, I guess."

Kai hated being alone. But he hated getting beat by those guys even more, so he just went on walking. A couple of the caretakers looked up as he wandered by, but paid him no extra thought. The spring sun was really warm, and the unsteady breezes were really starting to annoy him. He trudged along begrudgingly, wishing for a moment that he could just make everything perfe–

"Hey, little man," a voice said, and he looked up to see a guy behind one of those cool cart-booth things. He had a weird-looking mustache and a crop of greased black hair, but otherwise was a fairly friendly kind of man. "What're you doing all alone?"

"I'm with the ... uh, the other kids," Kai told him, gesturing vaguely behind him. The man raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. "What's all this?" he asked him, poking one of the newspapers hanging down on the sides.

"This is a news cart, kid," the guy told him proudly. "People come up, buy a paper, and go on their merry way."

Kai nodded, almost smiling. It was a pretty neat idea, he had to admit. That's when he actually looked at the paper, and he reached out to touch the photograph gracing the front page. "Hey, that's the airbenders, right?"

The man leaned over the counter and craned his neck to get a better look. "You bet it is, kid," he confirmed. "You know much about 'em?"

Kai shook his head. "Not really. But I've seen them in the papers before."

"They're at a gala, in that photograph," the man continued. "See how they're dressed kind of fancy? That's how you know."

Kai squinted and pointed at the weird-looking toddler boy. "That's Meelo, right? I remember when he was borned."

"You're pretty sharp, boy," the man clucked and tapped Kai's head for emphasis. "That's him alright, with his sisters and his parents."

"What're their names?"

The man paused, thinking. "Well, there's Master Tenzin, obviously, and his wife. Pemo or Pema or something, I can't remember. And the girls are Ikki and Jinora."

"Which one's that one?" Kai asked, pointing to the elder. She looked like she was just about his age, but much more serious than him.

"That'd be Jinora," the man smiled. "Real good bender, from what I've heard. Why? You think she's cute?"

Kai made a face. "Ew. No. Girls are gross."

IV.

The fourth time, he was eleven, and his "parents" were listening to the radio.

"– mysteriously recovered from her reported illness and assisted in the repel of the spiritual attack forced upon Republic City," the guy on the radio was saying. Kai looked up from stirring his potatoes around with a fork.

"Who're they going on about?" he asked, and his newly adopted father turned to face him.

"Master Tenzin's daughter," he answered kindly, smiling. "She helped Avatar Korra recently. Real funky business, but pretty heroic for a little girl."

"Which one?" Kai took a bite of his steak. Sure, he didn't really care much for this place, but he couldn't deny his new "mom" was a fabulous cook.

"Jinora."

Kai nodded. "She's the older one, isn't she?"

"Yes, sir."

"That's pretty cool," he stabbed a broccoli with his fork. That was one thing weird about this place - they didn't use chopsticks like he was used to. They used these weird silver sticks that looked like pitchforks or something. "Why's she helping Avatar Korra?"

Now it was the wife. "They're friends," she said simply. "Jinora is Avatar Korra's spiritual guide, if the rumors at the store are true. Oh, the ladies have been having an absolute hay day with all this spiritual nonsense! Gossiping nonstop, I'll tell you."

Kai frowned. "Isn't she, like, my age?"

"Yes, yes, I think so."

"That's pretty gutsy," he conceded. He didn't like complimenting people too much - it kind of felt a bit submissive or something - but a kid his age saving the world? He had to give her credit for that much. "Helping Avatar Korra? Pretty neat job."

His "dad" chuckled. "Would you like to do that someday, eh?"

Kai shrugged. "Sure, why not?" The couple laughed and turned up the radio as it turned to stocks and business marketing, chatting over investments between bites of meat. Kai resolved to just sitting there silently and plotting out the trip to their safe that night, because for that moment, he had remembered himself. Everything felt just normal.

**I swear you guys the next chapter of First Position will be up in due time I swear to God**


End file.
